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VALERÓN: A LEGEND AT DEPORTIVO

06 Jun 2013Few players can have such an impact as Valerón. Beyond the numbers the leader of Deportivo in recent years is a charismatic person that was a sympathetic character, even for the rivals. He’s leaving as the fourth player with more official games at the club.

Juan Carlos Valerón is now a legend at Deportivo La Coruña, after thirteen years at the club El Flaco left all kind of marks, starting with the number of official games with the Galician team. Totally, he played 422 official matches with Deportivo: 289 at Primera División, 39 at Segunda, 26 in Copa Del Rey, 2 in the Spanish Supercup, 48 for the UEFA Champions League, 10 in the UEFA Cup and 8 in Intertoto.

For this reason the Canarian marksman is currently the fourth player with more official games at the club, just behind Fran (699), Mauro Silva (459) and Manuel Pablo (441), this last one is his old friend and the only survivor from the Champions League era.

In his 422 games at Deportivo, Valerón scored 32 goals, but his most impressive mark was to have contributed with 76 assists, which means one every five games, an impressive mark without precedents at the club. He was never sent off, though he was booked in twelve opportunities. El Flaco is the only player of Depor that has scored or assisted goals in seven different competitions.

Valerón numbers at Deportivo:

Games

Goals

Assists

Yellow

Red card

Primera

289

19

52

12

0

Segunda

39

5

11

0

0

Copa

26

1

5

0

0

Supercopa

2

1

0

0

0

Champions

48

5

7

0

0

Intertoto

8

1

0

0

0

UEFA

10

0

1

0

0

422

32

76

12

0

Additionally, Valerón added 170 official presentations with UD Las Palmas and Atlético Madrid, including 11 in the UEFA Cup with the Madrilenian outfit, those are the other two clubs where he played before landing in A Coruña. In these stages he scored twelve goals and made five assists. It could look incredible, but he was sent off once, it was in his debuting season with UD Las Palmas as he was booked twice for protesting during the 2-0 win at Real Madrid Castilla (March 02, 1997).

With Deportivo he earned a Copa De Rey and a Supercopa, but sadly also suffered two relegations to Segunda División, and he also suffered one with Atlético (1999-2000). About his international status, the Arguineguín-born man made played 46 matches with Spain’s senior team, including the FIFA World Cup 2002 and the UEFA Euro 2004, totally he scored five goals.

Beyond the numbers and marks, Valerón will always be remembered as a truly legend at the club, his passing game and vision to play can only be leveled by his charismatic personality and goodness, something even admitted by the rivals. Definitely, he has earned a place among other Depor’s legend as Juan Acuña, Chacho, Fran and Mauro Silva.